La Vie en France #27: Inspiration can be Found Anywhere–Even in a Christmas Cartoon Movie

The Webmaster’s “La Vie en France” posts can be used to highlight cultural differences or to encourage others to pursue their passions. Today’s post is about encouraging readers to pursue their passions. Inspiration to do that can be found anywhere–even in a Christmas cartoon movie.

Most Americans are familiar with the scene from the Christmas cartoon movie “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” shown above, and most American readers (of age) can sing along with the chorus: “Put One Foot in Front of the Other…” However, after returning from his six months in France the Webmaster really heard this “silly” song and the message it gives. Select lines of the song are printed below:

Put one foot in front of the other

And soon you’ll be walking ‘cross the floor

Put one foot in front of the other

And soon you’ll be walking out the door

You never will get where you’re going

If you never get up on your feet

Come on, there’s a good tail wind blowing

A fast walking man is hard to beat

…

If you want to change your direction

If your time of life is at hand

Well don’t be the rule, be the exception

A good way to start is to stand

In “La Vie en France #5” and “La Vie en France #8” the Webmaster mentions the importance of teamwork–especially a supportive spouse. In the cartoon movie, the wizard is only able to change his disposition after gaining a new team member, Kris Kringle; who wins him over by giving him a Christmas toy. Without this new team member, he would not have started to change.

In “La Vie en France #22” the Webmaster describes how the momentum builds with little steps. What seems like a daunting task–such as writing a book or developing and building a business out of one’s passion–can be made easier if one thinks of it as a series of little steps. Also, the momentum builds as one starts to take the steps.

In “La Vie en France #23” the Webmaster describes how one ultimately needs to step out in faith to pursue one’s passion. “Well don’t be the rule, be the exception” in the above lyrics speaks to this directly. In the Webmaster’s case “being the rule” would have meant staying in his finance profession and building as big an asset base as possible; because one never knows what will happen in the future. Very few people in life choose to be the exception.

The Webmaster hopes that readers will look again at these posts and will find inspiration to pursue their passions. This was not a planned blogpost, but one of found inspiration.